Bibliography

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General

  • Boucher, David. 1998. Political Theories of International Relations. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Links: Library catalog.
  • Walzer, Michael. 2006. Just and Unjust Wars. New York: Basic Books. This title is on 3-hour (open) reserve at the library. A contemporary exposition and application of just war theory, with many concrete examples. Highly recommended.

Ancient Conceptions of Politics

General

Thucydides

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  • Alker, Hayward R. 1988. “The Dialectical Logic of Thucydides' Melian Dialogue.” The American Political Science Review 82(3):805-820. Link.
  • Ahrensdorf, Peter J. 1997. “Thucydides' Realistic Critique of Realism.” Polity 30(2):231-265. Link.
  • Fitzsimons, M. A. 1975. “Thucydides: History, Science and Power.” The Review of Politics 37(3):377-397. Link.
  • Forde, Steven. 1995. “International Realism and the Science of Politics: Thucydides, Machiavelli, and Neorealism.” International Studies Quarterly 39(2):141-160. Link.
  • Forde, Steven. 1986. “Thucydides on the Causes of Athenian Imperialism.” The American Political Science Review 80(2):433-448. Link.
  • Forde, Steven. 1992. “Varieties of Realism: Thucydides and Machiavelli.” The Journal of Politics 54(2):372-393. link.
  • Garst, Daniel. 1989. “Thucydides and Neorealism.” International Studies Quarterly 33(1):3-27. Link.
  • Hornblower, Simon. 1987. Thucydides. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Links: Library catalog.
A classicist's account of the life, historical context, and work of Thucydides.
  • Laurie M. Johnson Bagby. 1994. “The Use and Abuse of Thucydides in International Relations.” International Organization 48(1):131-153. Link.
  • Kateb, George. 1964. “Thucydides' History: A Manual of Statecraft.” Political Science Quarterly 79(4):481-503. Link.
  • Lebow, Richard Ned. 2001. “Thucydides the Constructivist.” The American Political Science Review 95(3):547-560. Link.
  • Monoson, S. Sara, and Michael Loriaux. 1998. “The Illusion of Power and the Disruption of Moral Norms: Thucydides' Critique of Periclean Policy.” The American Political Science Review 92(2):285-297. Link.
  • Orwin, Clifford. 1986. “Justifying Empire: The Speech of the Athenians at Sparta and the Problem of Justice in Thucydides.” The Journal of Politics 48(1):72-85. Link.
  • Orwin, Clifford. 1989. “Piety, Justice, and the Necessities of War: Thucydides' Delian Debate.” The American Political Science Review 83(1):233-239. Link.
  • Orwin, Clifford. 1988. “Stasis and Plague: Thucydides on the Dissolution of Society.” The Journal of Politics 50(4):831-847. Link.
  • Orwin, Clifford. 1984. “The Just and the Advantageous in Thucydides: The Case of the Mytilenaian Debate.” The American Political Science Review 78(2):485-494. Link.
  • Orwin, Clifford. 1989. “Thucydides' Contest: Thucydidean "Methodology" in Context.” The Review of Politics 51(3):345-364. Link.
  • Orwin, Clifford. 1994. The Humanity of Thucydides. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Links: Library catalog.
A thoughtful examination of the political philosophy revealed in Thucydides' work.
  • Palmer, Michael. 1989. “Machiavellian virtù and Thucydidean aretē: Traditional Virtue and Political Wisdom in Thucydides.” The Review of Politics 51(3):365-385. Link.
  • Reeve, C. D. C. 1999. “Thucydides on Human Nature.” Political Theory 27(4):435-446. Link.
  • Saxonhouse, Arlene W. 1978. “Nature & Convention in Thucydides' History.” Polity 10(4):461-487. Link.

Aristotle

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  • Finley, Moses. 1980. Ancient Slavery and Modern Ideology. London: Chatto and Windus. Library catalog.
Explores the issue of slavery among the Greeks. Discusses Aristotle's views on natural slavery.
  • Ambler, Wayne. 1987. "Aristotle on Nature and Politics: The Case of Slavery." Political Theory, Vol. 15, No. 3., pp. 390-410. Link.
  • Smith, Nicholas D. 1983. "Aristotle's Theory of Natural Slavery." Phoenix, Vol. 37, No. 2., pp. 109-122. Link.
  • Dobbs, Darrell. 1994. "Natural Right and the Problem of Aristotle's Defense of Slavery." The Journal of Politics, Vol. 56, No. 1., pp. 69-94. Link.
Abstract: Many social theorists, appalled at the moral enormities made possible by the modern scientific conquest of nature, now look to a restoration of classic natural right as a standard for human affairs. But the key role of slavery in Aristotle's magisterial exposition of natural right is typically overlooked. Commentators on Aristotle's account of natural slavery add to the perplexity, charging that this account is culturally biased and logically inconsistent. Such charges play into the hands of the opponents of natural right, whose common theme is the inability of reason to overcome such biases in its search for what is right by nature. Lacking a defense of the moral and theoretical respectability of Aristotle's account of slavery, the restorationists' cause must remain unpersuasive. To provide this defense, I suggest that Aristotle's teleology implies that the natural slave, generally speaking, is made not born. Child-rearing and other cultural practices, which ordinarily promote the natural destiny of mankind, may instead subvert this telos by inculcating a dysfunctional, slavish second nature. Despotic rule may be said to be natural in such cases, and only insofar as it aids the slave in better realizing the telos proper to a human being. Aristotle quite consistently condemns all employments of the slave that are uncongenial to the reformation of slavishness and allows for emancipation in the event of this achievement.

Stoicism

  • Erskine, Andrew. 1990. The Hellenistic Stoa. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
An account of the political thought of the Stoics from Zeno to the early Roman empire. Somewhat technical at times. Library catalog.
  • Long, A. A., and D. N. Sedley. 1987. The Hellenistic Philosophers. 2 vols. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. Library catalog.
A collection of fragments from ancient sources recording the writings of various stoic philosophers (which no longer exist independently). It is organized thematically and contains useful introductions to all the major themes and problems in early Stoic philosophy.
  • Schofield, Malcolm. 1999. The Stoic Idea of the City. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
A (somewhat technical) account of the political thought of the early stoics and its transformation in Roman times. Library catalog.

Just War

Augustine

  • Brown, Peter. 1967 [New edition 2000]. Augustine of Hippo. London: Faber and Faber. Library catalog.
The standard biography of Augustine.
  • Bethke Elshtain, Jean. 1995. Augustine and the Limits of Politics. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press. Library catalog.
A very readable, even personal, account of Augustine's political thought. Chapter 5 is especially good on Augustine's thought on international relations.
  • Loriaux, Michael. 1992. "The Realists and Saint Augustine: Skepticism, Psychology, and Moral Action in International Relations Thought." International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 36, No. 4. (Dec., 1992), pp. 401-420. Link.
Abstract: The political thought of Saint Augustine contributed, primarily through the writings of Reinhold Niebuhr, to the development of political realism in the twentieth century. Augustine and the realist share a fundamental skepticism regarding the prospects of moral and political progress. It is this skepticism that is the characteristic and even definitional attribute of realist thought. But Augustine's realism is more radical than that of the modern. Modern realism assumes a certain stylized psychology that allows the realist to portray world politics as an arena of strategic interaction. Augustine's more radical skepticism doubts the possibility of rational strategic action. Yet, building on this more radical skepticism, Augustine demonstrates the possibility and the need for moral action in a realist world. Augustine challenges the modern realist to explore more systematically the skeptical foundations of realist thought.

Aquinas

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  • Miller, Richard B. "Aquinas and the Presumption against Killing and War." The Journal of Religion, Vol. 82, No. 2. (Apr., 2002), pp. 173-204. Link.
  • Brock, Gillian. "Humanitarian Intervention: Closing the Gap Between Theory and Practice" Journal of Applied Philosophy, Vol. 23, No. 3. (2006), pp. 277-191. Link
  • Logan, Justin. "The Bottom Line on Iran: The Costs and Benefits of Preventive War versus Deterrence" Policy Analysis, No. 583. (Dec. 4, 2006), pp. 1-27. Link

Erasmus

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  • Fernández, José A. "Erasmus on the Just War." Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 34, No. 2. (Apr. - Jun., 1973), pp. 209-226. Link.
Shows that Erasmus did accept the possibility of just war, though not in his Dulce Bellum Inexpertis. Has a somewhat harsh assessment of the quality of Erasmus' thought.

Vitoria

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  • Davis, G. Scott. 1997. "Conscience and Conquest: Francisco de Vitoria on Justice in the New World." Modern Theology 13 (4):475-500. Link.
  • Terry Nardin. 2002. “The Moral Basis of Humanitarian Intervention.” Ethics & International Affairs 16 (1): 57-70. Link.

New Conceptions of Politics

Machiavelli

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  • Berlin, Isaiah. 1971. The Question of Machiavelli. The New York Review of Books, Vol. 17, No. 7. (November 4 issue). Link.
  • John Langton. 1987. Machiavelli's Paradox: Trapping or Teaching the Prince. The American Political Science Review, Vol. 81, No. 4., pp. 1277-1288. Link.
  • Timothy J. Lukes. 2001. Lionizing Machiavelli. The American Political Science Review, Vol. 95, No. 3., pp. 561-575. Link.
Abstract: Machiavelli scholarship is prolific but claustrophobic. Even though chapter 18 of The Prince advises the aspiring leader to emulate both lion and fox, commentators ignore or devalue the lion and focus on the fox. Machiavelli is thereby depicted as a champion of cleverness and deception, and not much else. This article takes up the lion. It argues that Machiavelli's lion is not a simple and violent beast, but is rather a complex tutor that complements clinical and lonely foxiness with crucial injections of virility and community.
  • John Leonard. 1984. Public versus Private Claims: Machiavellianism from Another Perspective. Political Theory, Vol. 12, No. 4., pp. 491-506. Link.
  • Ingersoll, David E. 1968. “The Constant Prince: Private Interests and Public Goals in Machiavelli.” The Western Political Quarterly, Vol. 21, No. 4, pp. 588-596. Link.
  • Skinner, Quentin. 2000. Machiavelli: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Library catalog.
A short introduction to Machiavelli by one of the foremost scholars of the period.
  • Strauss, Leo. 1958. Thoughts on Machiavelli. Glencoe, IL: The Free Press. Library catalog.
A book that argued the case for Machiavelli as a "teacher of evil." Chapter II is available as an article, "Machiavelli's Intention: The Prince," in the American Political Science Review, 51(1):13-40. Link.
  • Viroli, Maurizio. 1998. Machiavelli. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Library catalog.
Argues the case for a "Republican" Machiavelli, concerned with the liberty of the city and hating tyranny in all forms.
  • Wolin, Sheldon. Politics and Vision: Continuity and Innovation in Western Political Thought. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Chapter 7 contains an influential interpretation of Machiavelli as the originator of an idea about the "economy of violence": see here; see also Library catalog.

The State of Nature

Hobbes

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  • Lewis, Thomas J. 2003. Recognizing rights: Hobbes on the authority of mothers and conquerors. Canadian Journal of Political Science 36 (1):39-60. Link.
Abstract. This article follows Hobbes’s distinction between man as the artificer of a commonwealth and man as the material of the commonwealth, by exploring the meaning of natural right and consent from the perspective of an artificer or potential sovereign. From this perspective, natural rights are transformed from alleged attributes of humans into decisions by a victor in war to treat the defeated as if they had natural rights. Similarly, consent is transformed from actions of subjects or citizens into a decision by a victor to recognize the defeated as if they had a right to consent and to treat them as if they had consented. Moreover, Hobbes’s concept of a commonwealth by institution is understood as a definitional standard for the creation of commonwealths by force or acquisition, rather than as a possible historical event. Hobbes sought to explain and substantiate this view of natural right and consent by comparing the emergence of political authority from victory in war to the emergence of authority of a mother over her infant in a state of nature. According to Hobbes, just as maternal authority rests on a mother’s recognition of the right of her infant to consent, political authority rests on the victor’s recognition of the right of the defeated to consent. The practical policy thrust of Hobbes’s thought emerges from his comparison of the authority of mothers and conquerors.
Comments: A useful discussion of the notion of "consent" in Hobbes. Suggests that consent must be understood as an attitude the ruler takes towards the subjects, not so much as a specific action that the subjects take authorizing the ruler.
  • Ashcraft, Richard (1971). Hobbes's Natural Man: A Study in Ideology Formation. Journal of Politics 33 (4): pp. 1076-1117. Link.
This article shows how Hobbes' use of the concept of the "state of nature" overturned the common presuppositions of political philosophy at the time Leviathan was published. It suggests that Hobbes managed to redefine what "natural" meant by drawing, among other things, on reports of native life in the Americas. Very clearly written.
This book is a very careful reconstruction of Hobbes's argument using the tools of modern game theory. Hampton argues that Hobbes's argument, though powerful, is ultimately flawed - either inconsistent with his psychology or consistent with his psychology but unable to establish the necessity of an absolute sovereign. An excerpt from the book is reprinted in The Social Contract Theorists: Critical Essays on Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau.
Gauthier criticizes Hampton, arguing that she does not take seriously enough the idea of a social contract, and hence too quickly dismisses Hobbes's argument. Hampton replies here.
  • Gauthier, David (1969). The Logic of Leviathan: The Moral and Political Theory of Thomas Hobbes (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Link Library Catalog.
  • Cranston, Maurice William. 1972. Hobbes and Rousseau: A Collection of Critical Essays. 1st ed. Garden City, N.Y: Anchor Books. Library catalog.

Grotius

  • Steven Forde. 1998. "Hugo Grotius on Ethics and War." The American Political Science Review, Vol. 92, No. 3, pp. 639-648. Link.
Abstract: Interest in the thought of Hugo Grotius on international law and ethics is justified inasmuch as he attempted to define a theoretical position between an idealism he thought counterproductive and an amoral realism he found unacceptable. Grotius constructed a system in which the moral authority of natural law was combined with the flexibility of human law. This required him to develop a special understanding of the nature and relation of these two types of law. In giving the law of nations, as a product of human will, the authority to suspend provisions of natural law, he provided for a code of international conduct that could permit injustice where necessary, without abandoning moral ideals altogether.
  • Knud Haakonssen. 1985. "Hugo Grotius and the History of Political Thought." Political Theory, Vol. 13, No. 2., pp. 239-265.Link.

Rousseau

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  • Patrick Riley (1973). "Rousseau as a Theorist of National and International Federalism." Publius, Vol. 3, No. 1., pp. 5-17. Link.


  • Plattner, M. F. (1979). Rousseau's State of Nature: An Interpretation of the Discourse on Inequality (p. 137). Northern Illinois University Press.
Most books I found on Rousseau are either on Rousseau on general, with little information on his Discourse on Inequality or they are more about his Social Contract. This book is specific on Rousseau's State of Nature, which I found very handy, although it is quite detailed and I recommand the last 2 chapters.

Democracy and Intervention

Mill

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  • Eileen P. Sullivan (1983). "Liberalism and Imperialism: J. S. Mill's Defense of the British Empire." Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 44, No. 4., pp. 599-617. Link.

Perpetual Peace

Kant

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  • Bohman, James and Matthias Lutz-Bachman (eds). 1997. Perpetual peace: Essays on Kant's cosmopolitan ideal. Cambridge: MIT Press. Library catalog.
  • Covell, Charles. 1998. Kant and the law of peace: A study in the philosophy of international law and international relations. New York, St. Martin's Press. Library catalog.
  • Nichols, Mary P. 1986. Kant's Teaching of Historical Progress & Its Cosmopolitan Goal. Polity, Vol. 19, No. 2., pp. 194-212. Link.
Abstract: Kant taught men to transcend their individual or parochial perspectives and look at themselves as cosmopolitans. He proposed a condition of perpetual peace, achieved through history, as an alternative to the state of nature which Rousseau thought impossible to recover. Cosmopolitanism is necessary for perpetual peace. Professor Nichols notes that Kant is nevertheless aware of the limits human nature imposes on cosmopolitanism. She goes on to argue that his teaching leads men to seek a world order that may be neither possible nor desirable.
  • Dadrian, Vahakn N. "Kant's Concepts of 'Human Nature' and 'Rationality': Two Arch Determinants of an Envisioned 'Eternal Peace'" Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 5, No. 4., pp. 396-401. Link.
  • Huntley, Wade L. 1996. "Kant's Third Image: Systemic Sources of the Liberal Peace." International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 40, No. 1., pp. 45-76. Link.
Abstract: Much recent scholarship has focused upon the apparent absence of war among liberal democratic states-the liberal peace. To help explain the phenomenon, many refer to the political writings of Immanuel Kant, and the central role he envisioned for the liberal republic as the foundation for "perpetual peace." Against this view, "neorealists" contend that Kant, and modern inter-preters, overlook the important and unremitting force of anarchy among states. For neorealists, no peace dependent on only the internal pacific disposition of liberal republics can endure. Supporters of the Kantian interpretation respond that properly constituted republics can, in fact, overcome the anarchy among them, and that the present liberal peace therefore challenges the adequacy of "systemic" theories of international politics. This article argues that to view the significance of the liberal peace as a test of opposing "levels of analysis" misses deeper issues. Kant's thought itself contains an indispensable systemic or "third image" dimension, identifying anarchy and conflict as key sources of progress away from the state of war among states. This perspective suggests that the core questions raised by the liberal peace phenomenon concern not only the importance of anarchy among states, but also the long-run effects of anarchy on the nature of states and the consequences of their interactions. As an initial exploration of this argument, the article concludes with some preliminary comparative applications of neorealist and Kantian hypotheses regarding contemporary and future trends in world politics.

Hegel

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  • Avineri, Shlomo. 1962. "Hegel and Nationalism." The Review of Politics, Vol. 24, No. 4., pp. 461-484. Link.
  • Mertens, Thomas. 1995. "Hegel's Homage to Kant's Perpetual Peace: An Analysis of Hegel's "Philosophy of Right" §§ 321-340." The Review of Politics, Vol. 57, No. 4., pp. 665-691. Link.
Abstract: At a few places in his "Philosophy of Right" Hegel directly addresses the discussion with his famous predecessor Immanuel Kant. These places indicate very clearly the distinction between the two philosophical standpoints. This article focuses on Hegel's criticism of Kant's views on peace and international law. For two reasons however, it starts with Hegel's rejection of Kant's moral point of view. First, this criticism is presupposed in Hegel's rejection of Kant's view on politics. Second, at least a partial return to Kantian morality is implied in Hegel's statement that war, although not to be condemned categorically, must be limited both quantitatively and qualitatively.
  • Smith, Steven B. "Hegel's Views on War, the State, and International Relations." The American Political Science Review, Vol. 77, No. 3., pp. 624-632. Link.
Abstract: In this article I argue a thesis about Hegel's views on war different from most previous interpreters, e.g., Popper and Hook on the one side and Avineri and Pelczynski on the other. In particular I argue that his reflections on war are an attempt to answer the problem of political obligation or the question of why should anyone willingly die for the state. Accordingly, I examine briefly Hegel's critique of Kantian morality for its inability to account for political obligation proper and although ultimately I conclude that Hegel never completely extricated himself from Kant's belief in a providentialist historicism leading to a condition of "'perpetual peace,'" I still want to suggest that war remains for Hegel an essential moment in the "'ethical'" life of the state and perhaps the chief means whereby the dignity and autonomy of the state can be exerted over the network of private interests that constitutes civil society.

Marx

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  • Elster, Jon. 1986. An Introduction to Karl Marx. Cambridge, U.K: Cambridge University Press. Library catalog.
A sympathetic, though sometimes highly critical, introduction to Marx's thought. It tries to distinguish between "what is living and what is dead" in Marx's thought.

Recent political thought

  • Rawls, John. 1999. The law of peoples. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Library catalog.